A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1948)

Rufus Rose working on one of his handmade puppets.

Balladeer’s Blog’s Sixth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues! This lost version of the Dickens classic from the days of live tv featured beautifully crafted marionettes as all of the characters.

It’s a shame this baby was in black & white since the costumes for the marionettes could have really dazzled in color I’ll bet. It also makes you wonder why more puppet versions of the Yuletide tale weren’t mounted during the Golden Age of Television. 

ABC broadcast this holiday treat on December 24th, 1948 when televisions were still comparatively rare. Manipulation of marionettes is not easy but the legendary Rufus Rose Marionettes were the perfect choice for the task in that era. Rufus, best known as Howdy Doody’s off-camera operator directed this program along with his wife Margo.

Dickens’ Christmas Carol was an hour long production which was praised in Variety of December 29th, 1948. The review stated in part: “More than a dozen marionettes, beautifully modeled in the traditional manner, were put through their paces and if the actual manipulation could have stood perfecting the production itself outweighed this crudity.”

FOR MORE VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/category/a-christmas-carol-2/

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